New safeguards for children moving abroad

Judges get more say before children can live with relatives outside U.S.

SACRAMENTO  During her career, San Diego Superior Court Judge Yvonne Campos has confronted the sometimes emotionally difficult, politically touchy and legally hazy question of whether it would be in the best interests of a U.S.-born child to be placed with relatives in a foreign country where their well-being could no longer be assured.

So Campos, the daughter of Mexican immigrants, went to work to change state law so that prospective guardians must provide “clear and convincing evidence” that going to live with family in another country is in the best interests of the child.

Her campaign paid off Tuesday when Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation giving judges leeway to demand more evidence from relatives who don’t reside in the U.S. when they ask a court for custody of children.

“As a practical matter, once a child leaves the jurisdiction of our state and country that child’s future is out of our hands,” Campos said in a four-page plea to Brown to sign the legislation.

“For example,” her letter continued, “a child placed with distant relatives in Mexico, under the guise that a family placement outside of the country is better than continued supervision in our state, may likely endure a lower standard of living than even other foster children who remain in our state. That child may likely not use English as a first language nor reap any benefits of a California public education.”

Moreover, Campos said shuttling a child to a foreign country denies him or her their “birthright.”

Assemblyman Ben Hueso, D-San Diego, carried the measure, which sailed through both houses without opposition.

Hueso, in a statement, indicated that children could be at risk if judges are forced to automatically grant custody to out-of-country relatives who would for all practicality not be monitored by California authorities.

“I am certain that this bill will supply the courts the needed tools to avoid placing children in harmful and dangerous situations,” he said.

Hueso’s office said since 2000 there have been 437 out-of-the-country placements.

In her letter, Judge Campos noted she had serve three years in a juvenile dependency assignment court in San Diego County determining where children should live.

“US citizen children should expect to be cared for in their country of origin and raised as Americans since that is their birthright … These family ties alone should not trump other usual considerations as to what is in a child’s best interest,” she wrote.

The measure also drew support from Candi Mayes, executive director of the Dependency Legal Group of San Diego which works with indigent families involved in juvenile court matters.

In her own letter to the governor, Mayes said current law sets “nearly impossible” standards for courts when considering whether to overrule a placement worker’s recommendation that the child live with relatives out of the country.

The judicial review of the evidence is often set after the child is in another country “so independent investigation is impossible,” Mayes wrote.

Assembly Bill 2209 does not require a judge to deny custody to relatives, but it does give the court more discretion.